New Blood
by Danyl The Mad
Summary: Harry Potter attracted alot of attention when he defeated Voldemort. Maybe Dumbledore should have been more careful about where he left him? Maybe someone picked him up before the Dursleys ever knew he was there, and then all hell breaks loose, kinda.
1. 1 The Dark Wizard

Chapter 1: The Dark Wizard

Nearly 10 years ago, a little boy was left on the doorstep of number four, Privet Drive. This little boy with unruly black hair and a lighting bolt shaped scar on his forehead, did not know who he was or who he was to become. He did not know of the tones of reverence that people used when talking about him. He did not know that his parents were dead, nor did he know that he had defeated one of the greatest dark wizards in Britain's magical history, which is rather extensive. He was, in general, a very ignorant, and indeed at this stage, a very blissful child, as he lay on the doorstep.

Dumbledore who was now retiring to a small house somewhere in Wales, was in a more somber mood as he and a few other close friends of the Potters gathered to mourn both their loss, and the loss that their son will have to grow up with. But he took comfort in the fact that they had died to ensure that their son had a life, a life free of wars and free of the prophecy that had been place upon him. He knew that they would have be proud of that. He too was ignorant, even if it was to a far lesser extent than the boy he had just left. He did not know that many other powers, powers that rivaled him, maybe even rivaled Voldemort in his dark arts, had been watching the British's Ministry's silent war for all eleven years. He had been aware of this than he may have been more cautious in where he put their savior, he may have, for arguments sake, not have left him on the doorstep of house, that was as yet, un-warded. He may, for example, have not left him in an almost completely muggle neighborhood, which knew nothing of his importance, nor of how to defend against most of the beasts that lurked on the fringe of the magical world. He may, for shits and giggles, not have left him lying there with the residual power of the most deadly spell, cast by the most deadly wizard, in an age, still clinging to his being. However, he knew none of this and so took comfort in the fact he believe that for the first time in his short life, Harry appeared to have the chance at a at least semi-normal life. Truly ignorance is bliss, but when knowledge is gained and it's time to pay the piper, one has to wonder whether it was worth the brief moment of happiness.

As it was, a dark wizard of great power, but of the more gentle nature was watching. He was a tall man, thin and drawn and pale to match. His face was young, with what some may call handsome features, everything about him was sharp, sharply designed facial features, sharp angular elbows, and everything was clearly meant to be what it was. His eyes were eyes, sharp blue and piercing, and all other features kept a respectful distance from them. His mouth resembled that of one M. McGonagall , who had also just left the young Harry Potter, that is to say that it was little more than a line, and it seemed to actively resist any attempt at mirth the man's face may attempt. Despite this he was a very gentle dark wizard, as dark wizards go. He didn't seek to rule or dominate a country or town, nor was he interested in building a legacy of terror. In fact he was opposed to the very idea. He held Voldemort in competent for his petty goals of power and dominance. He had ignore the bothersome man when he had come begging for knowledge, when Voldemort had escalated into violence the mangled corpses of his minions that he had sent back to Voldemort had shut him up. It was not that Voldemort couldn't have beaten the wizard, indeed the wizard had known full well that with his followers, the self style Dark Lord could have defeated him. But such a clash of dark powers would have weakened Voldemort and further delayed his conquest of Britain, and so he had left the wizard in peace, to save for a later victory.

"Fool." The wizard hissed. His voice was that of a young man, poisoned with years of bitterness and hate. But judging age among wizards was a difficult task, and especially in this case.

"Can you now see the folly of settling for Horcruxes? It would have been better to seek my knowledge first. It would have saved you all this bother." He doubted the invisible spirit of Voldemort was anywhere near his lair, in a secluded mountain, that was part of a secluded mountain range in a remote, but not secluded, part of Greece, but that didn't stop him from enjoying the moment. He had not been privy to Voldemort's plans, but he was smart, and knew that if Voldemort wanted his knowledge, he wanted immortality, and if he couldn't get it he would have settled on Horcruxes, a tool from the Liches of old, and largely considered too dangerous to attempt.

"And now you wander the world as a wrath and the boy who did this is left on a doorstep like some unwanted kitten? How very interesting." He cancelled the spell, and straightened his back. He held his head high like the man of power that he was. He turned away from the raised pool of water that he had been using to scry for the source of the radiant magic that had ruined a very delicate enchantment he had been attempting several hours ago. How surprised he had been to discovery that the source came from a boy, that was now lying on a doorstep in England, Several hours of scrying later and he had come up with a pretty good idea of what had transpired. The boy warranted investigating, but no doubt Dumbledore would soon realize that Voldemort was not very dead and have the boy under wards by the next sunrise. Whether that revelation would come in a day or a year he had no clue but the point remained, he needed Potter. He glanced around the dark room lit only by the torches on the wall. He picked out the small shape of a house elf standing by the side of the door.

"Melcy, ask Clare to come to the antechamber please." He said briskly, the elf nodded and popped out of existence. He never saw reason to be cruel to the elves, nor did he feel the need to be overly polite, but still it was an improvement from most purebloods. He strode out his dark scrying room into well lit corridor made from medieval stone work. If it wasn't for the fact that there were no windows anywhere in the expansive castle, apart from a few towers, some people might have not noticed that it was mostly, apart from a few towers, under a mountain. He flicked his wand and a cool breeze flowed down the corridors, ruffling his hair dark hair. The house elves where good at keeping the air fresh and breathable, but they had no flair for the artistic. As he walked he thought, as he often did, on his reasons for turning to the dark side. At first it had been the power, but he just didn't have the dark heart required to senselessly kill. No, he stayed dark for two very important reasons, the first being immortality and the second was Clare. He longed for true immortality, even though he looked nearly twenty he was approaching two hundred. He had several ways to prolong his life, a version of the philosophers stone was one (although only Nicholas Flammel, is the only person who has revealed possession of the artifact, with sufficient research many dark wizards could create their own version, if they were willing to gamble their lives, the stone was riskier than a Horcrux to create), and close research into vampires native magic was another. By combining the two he had been able to reverse his body's aging process so that he didn't have to keep the 150 year old face he had had when he finally managed to combine the two. But he wanted more. This immortality was too frail. If he lost his stone, and he couldn't draw on his vampiric ties he would age rapidly. He wanted a more permanent source of immortality. He had arrived at what he called the antechamber. In truth it was the base one of the towers, one with an opening at the top. If he were unimaginative he would call it a chimney, but he was imaginative, and so called it an antechamber. He stood quietly in the center of the room gazing up at the stars in the heavens. There was a spiral stair case that clung to the side of tower, circling upwards like a serpent. The stone work was immaculate as it was every where in his vast mountain castle. This had been one of his personal additions, carved with magic. Every twenty stairs there was a door, the doors would each lead to a room and each room would lead to a passage way that would sloped down and curve to join onto the passage that led to the base of the tower. He had given each floor a different color, and the effect was that if one managed to look down through the mountain's stone, they would find the layout form into a blooming flower. However no one ever did this and the wizard regarded that as a shame, seeing as it was one of his better works. He continued to let his mind wander. He could keep it up for days. Indeed if he ever lived among other wizards (with out them lynching him for his more macabre research) he would be regarded as very eccentric. But when one is near immortal, you have to find some way to deal with the time, research into a batter kind of immortality was a popular choice as it required so much time, ironically. He looked across the floor as Clare entered from the door. The second reason he stayed dark was because the wizarding world would never accepted her, and so he stayed here in this mountain just for her and was happy about it too.

"You wanted to see me." She said as walked towards him.

"Always do." He replied embracing her as she came closer.

"Still charming I see.' She said returning his embrace. Their separate research often kept the two lovers apart for days, but they were always in the same castle, and could feel each others presence, and when you are immortal, a week is nothing, but a meaningless measure of time. Clare was almost as tall as he was, just an inch or two shorter. Her skin was pale and cool to the touch and her features as soft as his were sharp. She was slim and graceful, and like him look to be twenty. Her eyes were a captivating golden color that seemed to burn with life to make up for her body's deathly chill. Her voice had a soft purring quality to it that seemed almost ethereal, as if her body held a soul that refused to die. And that was almost true, and it was also why the wizarding world would never accept Clare Crowcaller. As for her name… that was a story that warranted a day of thought to fully express.

"I love you." The wizard settled on saying.

"I know." She replied moving away, "And, I also know that when you say that, it means you need to go somewhere." Her golden eyes bored into his blue ones. He knew what she was thinking, she thought it every time he left, she wondered if he would return, she wondered if maybe he had finally grown tired of her, she wondered if he had come to hate what she was.

"I'll be back, I need to fetch something from England, I'll be back before midday, promise."

"Promise?" She said her eyes softening.

"Promise." He said with conviction. He kissed her, and as they parted, he dissapparated with a wink. Clare smiled, there were worse fates than living with a dark wizard. But he hadn't been eating again, he was always too skinny, if she wasn't telling him to eat every night. She scowled, and decided that she would have to ask Melcy to be more insistent that he ate, immortal or no. Still she loved Gemini.

Five years ago, Harry Potter woke up in his room. He was six nearing seven now and full of boisterous spirit, especially at five in the morning. Melcy popped into existence just as Harry rushed from the room.

"HiyaMelcydoyouknowwhereGeminiis?" he said in a rush. Melcy laughed.

"Master Harry is very excited today." She said calmly.

"Uh-huh, Gemini said he would teach me magic today." Harry said nodding very quickly.

"Really? You must be excited." Melcy said. She knew very well that Master Gemini had agreed to teach Harry magic today. The house elf drew out the encounter, she had helped raise Harry when the Master and Mistress got very busy with their research and so felt she could play with him like this.

"Uh-huh, where is he, Melcy please." Harry said with a pained expression on his face, hopping from one foot to the other impatiently.

"Hmmm let me think," Melcy said putting one long finger on her chin, "I think he's in the dinning hall." She said at last. Harry said a very quick thank you and sped of down the hallway. Melcy popped out of existence to warn Master Gemini of the excited bullet heading his was.

Gemini Frances was born on the first of June and his mother who was part seer decided to name him after his star sign, that he didn't mind, but he couldn't stand his surname. Who would ever fear the Dark Wizard Frances? No one. After the fall of Grindelwald when it looked like the dark arts in Europe were to be permanently suppressed, and the dark wizards were being hunted down, it was his lack of reputation that saved him. In the period of calm that followed, and then the time while the world was focused on Britain's Dark Lord, he and Clare had gathered power and set themselves up in these mountains. He was powerful, extremely so, and Clare had, unique, talents. Between them they could be regarded as the dark force of the new age. They kept a low profile controlling things from the shadows if needed or just not getting involved, they had no desire to rule. If the two wanted to they could have caused real problems for the light. By and large they were considered, by the ministries that acknowledged their existence, as "extremely dangerous", but "Largely harmless to the population at large." Gemini had laughed and said that they were a sleeping dragon that the ministries didn't want to anger by trying to put a collar on and that was a reasonable analogy. The pair had made surprisingly good parents to the young Harry. Some say you can get more with a kind word than with a gun, Gemini believed that you get more with a kind word with a gun for emphasis than any other way. Harry however at that young age had been likely to try and chew the gun so Gemini had settled on just trying to get the lad to co-operate. Clare had practically adopted him on sight. She was unable to have children due to the way she achieved immortality, and saw Harry as more of some proof of her and Gemini's love than a project, and she knew that Gemini must care at some level, because she had caught him smile once while watching Harry play. Of course his self styled dark wizard status meant he would never admit it. Their only fault was that they had on occasion forgotten about him. Melcy would often care for Harry for a few days at a time when they got caught up in projects. Melcy could not think ill of them for it, they where human and new to immortality, they sometimes forgot that others weren't like them, and to be honest they tried to not forget him. All in all, Harry Potter's life was far better living with the dark wizard than it would have been if he had been left on the doorstep of number four Privet drive. Thankfully he would never know those people.

Gemini was sitting at his table, which was part of the mountain. He had spent a lot of time learning to shape stone, and in the end had made the mountain that was his home into a canvas for his art and skill. The table was a great stone slab that rested on what looked like vines growing from the floor. He was currently eating breakfast, at Clare's orders, at least he didn't need to sleep too often, and he could easily manage 3 days without sleep. Breakfast in this case was some fruit, probably apple, he concluded and yogurt, dreadfully healthy stuff he decided. Melcy popped into existence next to him.

"Master Gemini, Harry Potter is awake sir."

"Ah saved by the kid." He said pushing the bowl of offensively good food away. "Thank you Melcy, is he excited?" He asked.

"I thinks so sir." Melcy said with a smile. As if to prove her point a very fast moving Harry bolted into the large room. Making record time.

"Gemini, Gemini!" He said panting as he bent over and put his hands on his knees, "Will you teach me magic now?" Harry asked between breaths.

"Of course, follow me." He said walking towards the door, "Unless of course you're too tired now…"

"I'm not!" Harry protested. Gemini chuckled and walked on. The truth was he was excited too. He had been unable to find anything extraordinary on the child. Harry had the remnants of a very power protection spell on him when Gemini had picked him years ago, but that shouldn't have been strong enough to stop, let alone reflect, the killing curse. He was hoping that maybe with a wand in his hand the boy would reveal some hidden talent. If not, well would it really be so bad to have a son? Some sort of protégé?

"So what will I do first, Gemini?" Harry said bouncing along the corridor behind the dark wizard, "maybe I'll make something fly, or turn something into a frog!" Harry carried on. Gemini chuckled again, well at least the lad has ambitions, he thought to himself. They met Clare walking along the corridor. The two embraced as they always did and Harry made a face.

"Did you eat?" She demanded.

"Yes, and it was horribly healthy I'll have you know." Gemini replied making a face to rival Harry's.

"Good." She said ignoring his comment, she went down onto one knee and gave Harry a hug.

"How you doing, Harry?" She asked.

"Fine." He said shuffling about impatiently.

"I'm going to see what wand will suit him." Gemini supplied. Clare laughed as realized why Harry was so impatient.

"Oh, don't let me keep you then. Gem, I'll visit you later okay?" Gemini just replied with wink and walked off with Harry again.

"Clare is a funny lady." Harry said as they walked.

"Really?" Gemini asked.

"Uh-huh, but I like her."

"Me too."

**A.N okay so there's the first chapter****, please tell me what you think in the little review box. **


	2. 2 Visions and Revelations

Chapter 2: Visions and Revelations

Chapter 2: Visions and Revelations.

Harry followed Gemini down the hallway. He had been waiting for this day for ages! He was going to learn magic! He hadn't been this excited since he found a cupboard full of brooms, when he was five. He had flown nearly all the way to the end of the antechamber before falling off, if Melcy hadn't caught him… But that was okay 'cause now Clare gave him lessons sometimes, and he hadn't fallen off in ages, not even when he did a loop! He was jerked out the memory of that wonderful flying feeling when Gemini opened a door.

"Go in." He said. Harry stepped in. His mouthed opened when he saw, lined up against the far wall, two rows of wands. They were stuck to the wall with a sticking charm, the tips pointing up. There were at least twenty five in each row, so that made… Harry paused as he did the sum, 50! Gemini had taught him to read, and draw, and Clare taught him to fly, and math.

"Wow." Harry said. Gemini sat down on a chair he conjured.

"Go on, try one out." He said waving to the wands. Harry stared and then shrugged. Gemini wouldn't say it if he didn't mean it. He walked over to the rows of wands. He brushed the ends of some of them with his fingers. Some made his fingers tingle, and some were cold and some did nothing at all.

"These are most the basic wand types, one type of wood, standard 10 and half inches and one core type. Choose the ones you think feel right and we'll be able see where the best place to get you a proper one is." Gemini said from his chair, where he watched Harry closely. Harry ignored the wands that didn't do anything when he touched them. He lingered on a few that made his fingers tingle nicely, and some of the ones that were only cool and not icy. If there was one thing that living with Gemini and Clare taught him it was: to take his time and be observant. Sometimes they let him watch their projects, but he needed to remember a lot of complicated stuff too, like how bat wings don't work with mandrake root. He moved along the rows when he got to the end turned around and went through each row again. Finally on the third time he picked out three wands. He put them on a table that Gemini conjured.

"Alright let's see what we have here." He said as he picked up the first one.

"Ash wood and phoenix feather." Then the next one, "Phoenix feather and oak." And finally, "Dragon heart string and holly." He looked at Harry and asked, "Why did you choose these ones?" Harry and shrugged and pointed at the first one.

"That one tingles nicely, that one is nice and cool and the last one is the only warm one in the racks." He replied. Sometimes Gemini scared Harry when he looked at him hard. Clare had said that he didn't mean to but it was just the way his face was. Gemini said it was because he is a scary person, but Harry didn't believe him. Gemini had only got angry with Harry once, and that was when Harry had put bat wings and mandrake root in his potion. Gemini had gone for a whole week and Melcy had said he was building a swimming pool. In a week Gemini was done and showed Harry the big stone pool, and said that if Harry ever put mandrake roots and bat wings in a potion again he would throw him in the pool. Clare had then told him off for scaring the boy.

"Okay then." Gemini said clapping his hands together. "the best phoenix feathers come from Greece and the best holly comes Britain, so I'll order both and have you a wand made."

"But…" Harry said.

"Hmm"

"Well how do they know how long it must be?" Harry asked.

"Well they make one long wand and cut it in half. Both halves are too long be a wand, then you hold one half and they shave it down, measuring how intune with the wizard it is, then when it starts to untune they know how long to make the other one for it to be perfect. The wand maker then sells the other to a vendor who will sell it to parents who need wands for their children to use at school."

"But why don't they have them made like mine?" He asked.

"Because it is expensive and the child won't know how to use a proper custom length one at its full power until after school. Some wizards don't even bother to get a proper one when they graduate." Gemini said. He tried to keep everything simple for Harry, not because he believed Harry stupid, but rather because he didn't want to repeat himself if Harry didn't understand.

"Oh, then why am I getting a proper one?"

"Because you will need one in the future and why waste time?" Gemini replied.

"Oh." Harry said.

In Dumbledore's office sat Dumbledore, not a very surprising thing, nor was the fact that he held a letter in his hand a surprise, nor would any one raise an eyebrow at the fact that he was reading the letter very carefully. What was surprising was that this letter was almost five years old and the headmaster knew every word by heart. It was a letter he had received a day after he had left Harry on the doorstep of number 4. It was a short and near poetic thing that read:

_Dumbledore, tut, tut old man. You should know better than to leave things lying around. Why just last night I found a most remarkable child, just left on a doorstep. No doubt you'll know whom I speak of. _

_I'll bet my last drop of magic that your thinking who would be so brazen? You'll rule out the death eaters because you know they don't have the power to do anything now, even with the boy. You'll also discount the ministry because they were drunk on relief at the time. You can't suspect the Order, after all you've kept the secret from them pretty well. In fact the only people that knew were Minerva, but she trusts you so impeccably… and Hagrid, and his faith in you is near absolute._

_So who is a light wizard to blame? Me, of course. Are you vexed yet? No clue as to who I am? You'll figure it out eventually I'm sure. _

_Know that he is well and that when you find out who I am… just tap the page and call my name. _

_Cheerio,__ Old Bean. _

Dumbledore despised this note more than anything else in the world currently, with the possible exception of its author. Every thing about the letter annoyed him, the wording, the tone, even the hand writing's slant seemed designed to irritate him. The ending he could almost hear the sarcasm. Dumbledore made a point out of never hating anything on principle, but he made an exception for this letter. But despite all his anger at it, the headmaster kept it like a holy tome, it was never damp, never crumpled. Dumbledore had tried everything he knew to find the place the letter had originated from, but all his spells had turn up was an artistic rendition of a blooming flower. It had been almost five years since then and still no word had come, nor had he figured out the name of its sender. No-one knew where Harry was. Remus had been missing for three years now, he left one day saying he would find Harry and hasn't returned. Black knew nothing about the whole affair and was in prison still. And Dumbledore was, on the whole, not a happy camper.

As the headmaster glared at his letter, the resident seer was having a rather bad vision. It was a bad vision, not because it brought news of doom and plight, nor did it cause a splitting headache or vomiting, or even excessive head spinning. No it was a bad vision for two reasons, the first being that professor Trelawny**, **was having breakfast in the great hall, and the second reason was that it was the summer holidays and no one was there to witness it. She got up and ran towards Dumbledore's office. She was still prying the cornflakes out of her ear when she arrived at the staircase. She muttered the password and was soon in the head master office.

"Albus! Albus! I've had a vision," Trelawny said, trying to make her voice husky and dramatic while gasping in between words. Dumbledore looked up from his letter frowning at the professor, who had a slice of banana on her forehead. He reached into his sleeve drawing out his wand. He tapped the wall behind him and a section of wall melted away. He levitated the pensieve onto his desk.

"Show me." He said. Trelawnynodded and pulled out the memory with her own wand, laying it into the pensieve. Dumbledore leaned forward, and fell into her memory.

The moon was gone, just a barely visible patch of darkness lighter that the rest of the darkness. The stars seemed dim, as if reluctant to shine into this scene. In a cemetery a woman appeared, dressed in black clothes that rivaled the night. She stood alone with a hole in her chest, at her feet lay the body of a child. She bent down to the child… a young boy probably, but he was distorted, blurred, as was the rest of the scene. Only the woman was clear in the half light. The boy's chest had a gash across it and blood was pouring forth, it was beyond all means, magical or muggle, to save him. The woman paused, tears running silently down her cheeks. Slowly she raised her deathly pale arm over the boys wound.

"I'm sorry." She whispered, slashing her wrist with a knife in her other hand. As the blood touch the boys wound it boiled, seethed like an ocean in a storm. The boy convulsed and his mouth opened in a silent scream. And in a moment he was still, chest breathing evenly, with not a scar to show that there had ever been a wound. Slowly the woman looked up at the headmaster. She smiled sadly, and a male voice behind Dumbledore whispered.

"Now there are two who call to the crows." Dumbledore turned around and found a forest of black trees staring at him. No, not black trees, dead trees, what looked like leaves in the night where crows. Hundreds of them, staring towards the two figures. Suddenly as if given a silent command they took wing and rushed Dumbledore, as the black cloud loomed before him, about to crush him and drag him down to the depths of darkness, the vision ceased.

Dumbledore breathed deeply, his head still swimming from the vision.

"Now there are two…" he whispered to himself. Trelawny nodded vigorously.

"What does it mean Albus?" She asked in a hushed tone.

"I think it means more than I can say right now. I, I need to think." The headmaster replied, his mind already wandering down several paths of thought. The professor looked crestfallen, but she knew that Dumbledore would tell her when he figured something out. She nodded and said a soft farewell, closing the office door quietly as she left. Feeling rather disappointed at the way her vision had come, and been received, with so little fan fare. In her opinion, a seer should receive far more attention than she got.

Dumbledore finally looked up at Fawkes.

"I just don't know, Fawkes. I don't know. I can't figure out anything." He whispered. The phoenix cooed in sympathy for the distressed man. Dumbledore looked back at the desk top, thinking hard. Only in this office did he ever allow himself to show any doubt, any weakness. He thought it would have gotten easier after Voldemort fell, but it didn't. Instead a new problem had cropped up, and it gave him just as many headaches. Where was Harry?

"Now there are two…" the line stuck in his mind as if an echo of the whole vision. He lay his hands on the desk in front of him, and they brushed against the letter which he had left on the desk. '_Crows.'_ he thought to himself. Something amongst the memories of over a hundred years rushed to the fore. _Crows…_ the letter had been delivered by a crow. Unusual, but not unknown, especially among dark wizards… Suddenly it all came together. The sudden quiet from the world's currently most powerful dark witch and wizard, the tone of the letter, the vision, and the crows. He had wondered why Gemini and Clare had ceased their more visible operations, at the time he had chalked it up to fear over the fate of Voldemort and focused on the missing Harry, but now that seemed all too convenient. Dumbledore reeled at his own stupidity, he had been so focused on Harry's disappearance that he had ignored the factions he had being watching since he had fought Grindelwald.

Gemini sighed and stared at his mug as if he could blame all of his problems on it. Then he realized that as a dark wizard he could blame the otherwise innocent mug, and this gave him a great amount of relief. He leapt up from his chair and leveled his wand at the accursed mug, and in the space of two seconds shot off three curses. The violet streams of magic slammed into the unfortunate piece of crockery and obliterated it into over a thousand shards. He sighed and felt much better.

"Bad mood?" Clare asked as she strutted into the room.

"He is so ignorant! I can't believe it! He was watching me scry today and he asked what a tree was! A tree! He has only ever seen the stone engravings! How could I be so stupid! I have killed any spark of intelligence the boy may have ever possessed!..." Clare allowed Gemini to rant on for a few minutes, he may be powerful and immortal, but all immortals had some thing that linked them to their human beginnings. Gemini was melodramatic and had a problem with keeping his emotions in check, often switching between anger and amusement in a heart's beat. While she was overly protective of those close to her.

"Gemini." She said calmly, halting his rant midstream. "There is a way to solve this problem." Gemini continued to stare at her so she continued, "We could take him out to the world…" she was cut short as Gemini leapt in.

"No, no, no, perish the thought and bury it six feet deep. I will not leave my projects now, I am this close to discovering the catalyst in vampire blood that converts healthy blood into sustenance for vampires. Do you know what that could mean?" He asked his eyes alight with passion. Clare looked down, she knew all to well what it could mean. Ever since she became immortal this had been his quest.

"…But," he continued a different light entering his eyes, "I think I know of someone who we could use." Clare raised an eyebrow at Gemini. He chuckled. "Sirius Black, not the brightest, but fiercely loyal to the Potters, and currently rotting in Azkaban, for a crime he didn't commit." Clare continued to look at Gemini, wondering where this was going.

"Yes, he would do. Dumbledore didn't even look closely. Any one with a suspicious nature would have seen something was a miss. Black joining the Dark Lord? His family did it true, but he had always gone against them as nearly a matter of principle. Scry for Peter on the other hand and you get a very interesting view." Gemini muttered as he paced the room.

"And _if_ we were to, say, grant him some creative parole he would be both indebted to us and unable to approach the ministry." Clare supplied a calculating gleam entering her overly bright eyes.

"Do you only think of such devious motives? What about his love for young Potter or his guilt over the death of Harry's parents?"

"That's what you deal with." Clare said with a huff.

"But he will have to stay near by. His knowledge of magical theory is growing nicely. Without us having to force it down his throat as a school would. And if Dumbledore ever contacts me I'll have another thing to rub his face in…"

Gemini's face went from emotionally charged to blank in the space of a second. Clare cocked her head to the side as if listening to a faint sound. Sure enough she started to hear it, it started soft, but soon became the roar of their wards being activated. Gemini heard it easily, but she had to call her magic to her through effort. She used to have a talent like Gemini's, but when she became immortal, she had drifted away from her original magic, and now it took effort to call it to her.

"Two intruders, antechamber and the cave." Gemini said, already deciphering the messages in the wards.

"Melcy!" He barked, a harsh sound coming from the thin figure, but the power was already radiating off him was immense. The house elf appeared with a loud pop.

"Ye…" She started, but Gemini cut her off.

"Go to Harry, make sure he is safe and doesn't go near the cave or antechamber, clear?" Gemini ordered, Melcy nodded quickly and vanished. He turned to Clare.

"Antechamber or cave." He offered.

"Cave, you know how I like the dark." She said a vicious glint entering her eyes. He nodded and walked out the door, his rage at the intrusion already compounding his previous bad mood. There was one thing in his mind that was clear. Whoever came here was going to pay, slowly.


	3. 3 Blood and Brimstone

**A.N Okay, sorry about the exceedingly slow updates, I'm in matric and the teachers seem to think this means we need more work. Anyway here chapter three, hopefully in the holidays things will speed up.**

**Once again, J.K owns this, not me, sad but true.**

**Thanks to my beta ****WiLd ChIlD****for all her work, I'm sure this would be difficult (to the point of impossibility) to read without her.**

Chapter 3: Brimstone and Blood.

Clare stalked down the ever darker corridors. She made no exceptional effort to be stealthy, she merely let her instincts take hold. In these upper reaches of their keep Clare and Gemini had nothing to be wary of. She felt a breeze tickle her face, but it was a distant feeling, just like all food distantly abated her hunger and all drink distantly tickled her throat. Her life had become a series of distant feelings, even her magic had been moved away from her. Only three things ever made her feel anything anymore. One was the feelings she had for Gemini whenever she looked at him, the second was Harry to a lesser extent, and the other was waiting for her at the end of this corridor. She became even more silent, her steps barely audible over the faint breeze. Clare breathed deeply. She could smell the intruder, clear but distant. Her eyesight sharpened, going beyond all normal limits. She was at home in the darkness. She saw her, creeping slowly through the darkness. She was pathetic, wandering so carelessly towards Clare with her wand drawn, but practically blind. Still, if she had made it past Gemini and Clare's combined wards she was powerful, and not to be taken lightly. Clare reached for her special magic, the kind that had granted her immortality, and drained much of her life away, a magic that was almost exclusively hers. There were several sharp cracks as her fingers lengthened, the tips becoming hard and sharp, like the claws of a beast. Her teeth lengthened and she tasted blood as her gums split. The witch stopped and stared into the darkness, as Clare silently circled around her. She lifted her wand and frowned in concentration. She sent a silent curse off, towards where Clare had been standing. In the hazy red light of the curse the walls were illuminated, but nothing more. The witch gave out a sigh of relief as the curse fizzled on the stone.

"Very good." Clare whispered from behind her. The witch spun around surprisingly quickly.

"_Reducto" _She shouted, losing her earlier composure. All that the spell did was show a quickly moving figure vanishing from sight. The noise from the blast hid the sound of Clare's footsteps. Clare rushed forward, her claws tearing the witch's flesh at her side. As her scream echoed around the cave, Clare licked her fingers, sighing at the tingle of the blood.

"_Pyro Echio" _The woman shouted her wand pointing in the direction Clare had gone. A ball of malevolent looking blue flames leapt from her wand. The spell was no where near Clare. Clare was about to move in for the kill when the ball of flame bounced of the wall and flew towards her. She hissed in annoyance as she dived backwards.

"_Pyro Echio" _The woman incanted again, her voice more controlled and her wand movements more refined as a larger, brighter ball of flame exploded forth, heading right for Clare. She reached into her robes and drew her own wand. Muttering quickly she waved her wand in a frantic pattern. The ball of flame stopped an inch short of her wand. The unknown witch's eyes widened in shock at the magic she was seeing. It took Clare more effort to use magic, but it was still potent. Hissing again, she spun around, the blue flames encircling her as she launched the flames at the smaller ball which had just bounced off the far wall. The two collided with a boom that forced the witch's hands to her ears. In the sudden darkness that engulfed them as the balls extinguished each other, Clare rushed forward. The witch's back was forced against the wall her arms held above her head, her feet off the ground. Clare leaned forwards, her mouth closing around the woman's throat as her teeth tore into her neck. Clare shuddered as blood flowed into her mouth. The woman's throat jerked as she screamed, the sound echoing of the walls of the cave. After a minute Clare dropped the woman's body. Her breath came shakily and Clare knew that her life was fading fast. She knelt before the intruder.

"This is my _home_ and in here live the only two things I care about," She hissed in the woman's face, her eyes wide with terror, as Clare leaned in closer still, blood still staining the edges of her mouth, "and now you are going to die here, in the dark, all alone, for the crime of threatening them." With that she stood and melted into the darkness, leaving the intruder to die with Clare's laughter echoing in her ears.

Gemini walked down the twisting passage ways. He was angry, anybody who triggered his alerting wards had made it past first the repelling wards and then the defense ones, which were easily capable of killing. Still, even if the intruder was a skilled curse and ward breaker, and powerful too, he would discover that the most powerful dark wizard alive was not in a mood to appreciate his talents. He and Clare had long ago decided to kill anyone who managed to breach the first two layers of wards to reach the alerting ones. He mentally pushed the doors open. The wandless magic threw the main doors to the antechamber open with a crack, Gemini strode in with the wind wiping his black cape out behind him, looking the very epitome of a pissed off dark wizard. There was a charge about him as magic crackled across his body and a strange light was dancing in his eyes. A man was descending on a broom, a look of horror on his face at the waves of power flowing off of Gemini.

"_DEMENTIA INFERNI_" Gemini roared, a vile purple and black haze erupting from his wand. The enemy instantly reacted, with a flick of his wrist a wand appeared.

"_Reducto! Pyro Celestia!_" He said waving his wand frantically. Gemini easily turned the reducto aside, destroying a chunk of stair case in the process. The haze had settled on the floor by now and was congealing like some sort of blood. The shapeless blobs reared up, slowly taking the form of twisted corpses, that constantly shifting.

"_Nox Inferni_" Gemini said to counter the pure white flame descending towards him from the man's wand. A stream of the most concentrated darkness erupted from Gemini's wand. It was a flowing river of everything he had pent up since childhood. Rage, hate, indignation, hurt, fear, a loathing for nigh on everything, in short the purest form of darkness ever conceived. The two beams collided and the darkness tore through the bright light, the righteous flames being torn asunder by his memories. It was only the fact that the man's broom was fast that saved him. Gemini sneered at the pathetic foe.

"_Attack!"_ Gemini said pointing to the man on the broom. The purple twisted shades stopped their twisting and snapped there heads around, utterly still now. The man's eyes widened in horror as the sickening figures let out a collective scream of hate and launched themselves at the wizard. Gemini charmed his feet and jumped. He landed on the topmost steps. He walked calmly to a non-remarkable brick and poked it with his wand. Bricks started to appear, just like the way bricks at the door to Diagon Alley did when it closed, sealing the antechamber from the sky. He turned to watch the man, who was rocketing upwards with Gemini's summoned horrors on his tail. Seeing his exit blocked, he pulled hard on the broom, going over backwards and plummeting through the horde chasing him. As he past one of the wraiths clawed his arm. Gemini watched as the man instantly paled, his face seeming to grow gaunt as terror flooded his face. The man reached the floor before many of the wraiths had turned around. He took a deep breath, looking as if he was trying to calm down.

"_EXPECTO PATRONUM!_" He shouted, a glowing owl flew forth. Gemini stepped off the steps, falling to the ground slowly, his feet still charmed. Very clever, he thought. He had created his 'inferni' spells after deep research into the magic of dementor's, not a very pleasant research period, but the spells embodied the darkest power of the dementor's magic. The wraiths had a touch similar to a dementor's kiss. He was impressed by this wizard's fast thinking and his ability to recover so quickly, even from the briefest of touches from his spell. The owl tore through the wraiths like a glowing bullet. Gemini's feet touched the ground behind the mysterious wizard.

"_Brimstone Inferni._" Gemini whispered his favorite spell. A foot long spear of brimstone shot from his wand. Muggles thought sulpher and brimstone the same thing, but in reality brimstone was the true fuel for the fires of hell. The wizard turned in time to raise a shield. This is what Gemini enjoyed, the spear hit the shield and shattered. From within it erupted a dark orange flame, billowing black smoke, which continued right along the path the spear had been traveling. The man leapt from his broom just in time. The broom exploded and the fireball, which had not stopped growing, slammed into the wall with and angered roar.

"_Nox __Inferni__,_" Gemini said again. The wizard deflected the wave of darkness into the stair case behind Gemini. Gemini watched the man wave his wand downwards, directing the rubble tumbling down to Gemini. Gemini merely smiled. This was pathetic, the man was good, but nowhere near Gemini's level. Gemini raised his hand, and wandlessly sent the rubble on a new path, towards the man, at the same transfiguring it into a series of large blades with his wand. The wizard swung his wand wildly, muttering something furiously. A wave of force it the blades, turning them into dust, Gemini wandlessly raised a shield, barely flinching as the powerful spell blasted at his shield. He used his wand to transfigure the rock beneath the man's feet. The wizard noticed too late what Gemini had done. His feet where now locked in the stone, he pointed his wand at the rock and started trying to release himself. Gemini kept his wand trained on the rock, preventing the wizard from succeeding. The wizard looked up to see Gemini's right hand stretched out to his side, a dark greenish haze swirling around it.

"_Soulus Spiritas Expelliro__,_" Gemini said throwing his hand forward the wizard stared in horror as spell rushed towards him, he didn't have time to raise a shield. The curse hit him in the chest. The man's body crumpled to the floor with a lifeless thud. The curse was the template from which the killing curse was created. But where the killing curse destroyed the soul and spirit, leaving a dead body, the ghost maker as it was called, pushed it out of the body, creating a ghost and a dead body. Gemini used the ghost maker because it left a ghost that you could interrogate. He bound the ghost of the man he had just killed to the nearest wall. He stepped forward towards the ghost who was looking rather dazed, understandable as he was now staring at his own corpse.

"Who. Sent. You." Gemini said slowly, he did not feel like repeating himself. The ghost turned it's pale blue face towards him.

"Y-you, you killed me." He managed to croak out. Gemini's right hand curled into a fist.

"_Spiritia corprealaries._" He said feeling a cold sensation flooding his veins and his hand throb slightly. He lifted the fist and punched the ghost in the face. The ghost screamed in pain as sparks danced over his bluish form. When he stopped, the ghost turned to Gemini.

"You hit me."

"My, aren't we the regular genius. Now answer my question." His voice was calm and soft, but with an undercurrent of strength that chilled the ghost even more than death had.

"_Spiritia corpre_-" Gemini's incantation was interrupted by the ghost sudden laughter.

"You've failed Francis, my Lord shall return, and you've provided the final ingredient." Gemini paused at the mad look in the ghost's eye, but there was something more, a glint of triumph? Suddenly a dread washed over Gemini. He turned to the corpse of the ghost who was laughing maniacally. He knelt by the corpse and pulled up the sleeve. What he made shocked him. A skull and snake.

"Oh shyte," he whispered. "Melcy... Melcy!" he started yelling. "Hels!" there was a soft pop, as another elf appeared, slightly greener than Melcy, the second serving elf. Most of the elves stayed happily in the bowls of the keep, performing whatever tasks Clare and Gemini assigned them. However, the serving elves were always alert for a call from their master and mistress.

"Yes Master?" Hels asked in a slow, heavy voice.

"Get Clare, there's another intruder, Harry's quarters." Hels eyes widen in the instant before he popped away. He too was fond of the young master and didn't want any harm to come to him. Gemini started running.

"Obsturia nullifaction." He muttered, and felt as if water was poured over his head. He neared a corner but didn't turn. He ran through the wall, remerging on the other side with a mist trailing him. He pounded down the corridor, nearing Harry's room. 'How did I miss another presence?' he thought as he ran. A small scream sounded from the end of the corridor.

"Harry!" Gemini screamed in reply, not the most tacitly sound idea, but Gemini didn't care. He reached the doorway and turned into Harry's room. He took in the scene. The large room was Harry's library. The walls where lined with book cases that Gemini had made sure contained some works of fiction, poetry and other books on the art. All arts, from martial to painting, where as Clare had insisted on philosophy, math, magically theory and runic lore. The result was that Harry never had a lack of reading material. As Gemini looked around he spotted Harry in the corner, lying on his back a nasty gash across his chest, a few feet away was a mousy looking man holding a vial of blood, his eyes alight with some maniacal glee.

Gemini steppedforward, seeing Melcy's corpse in a corner, a smoking hole in her chest.

"_Demetia Inferni_" Gemini said, his voice seething with hatred. The black and purple specters arose as Peter turned around.

"So Peter Pettigrew, we meet at last. I thought you were still a rat, hiding from the law."

"My Lord's power is far beyond the law! It's beyond even your might, Gemini!" Peter sneered arrogantly back.

"So what body is he inhabiting now? A squirrel? Or perhaps a weasel is more fitting?"

"How. Dare. You. Lord Voldemort will destroy you and your filthy whore."

"_Torture him._" Gemini hissed at his wraiths. The purple and black shades rushed forward, but Gemini knew that they wouldn't kill Peter unless he ordered it. Peter smiled smugly, and tried to apperate. He faded for an instant before being thrown to the floor.

"But I deactivated that ward!" The rat screamed.

"And I created a new one, wandlessly and silently, do you understand now? Do you comprehend who you have crossed?" Gemini ranted as the specter fell onto the hapless man, bringing forth screams. He went to Harry's side kneeling beside the boy.

"Come on lad, don't give up, okay?" Gemini whispered as he summoned forth magic. Using his wand Gemini sent forth a tendril of life giving magic. He focused, but Harry was slipping from him and there was nothing he could do, he was only prolonging the inevitable. Harry Potter, at age five, was going to die, and Gemini - the most powerful dark wizard of the age - was powerless to stop it. Clare burst into the room. She looked at Pettigrew, still screaming from the attention of Gemini's specters. Her mouth opened when she saw Harry in the corner. His chest open to the world, a tendril of light extending from Gemini's wand, sustaining the boy's life. Her lifeless skin crawled at the sight. Harry was dieing. Gemini looked, locked eyes with Clare and said in a slightly strained voice.

"Do it." Clare recoiled. How could he ask that of her? He knew her existence, what it had done to her, how could he ask her to inflict the same upon Harry?

"Do it now Clare! I cannot sustain him indefinitely, the boy demands too much power. Either save him now or condemn him to death!" Gemini shouted over Pettigrew's slowly silencing screams. Clare looked around the room. There was no other option, with Gemini's ward erected, crude and hasty as it was, the house elves couldn't enter and she couldn't apperate. There was no way she could make it to the philosopher's stone and back in time to save the boy. If Gemini was strained, then Harry was fading fast. She nodded. Tears burnt her eyes, she hadn't cried in over five decades, not since Gemini promised her. Such a show of emotion was usually beyond her. She knelt on the other side of Harry, looking up at Gemini. He smiled weakly, the color fading from his face as he struggled to maintain the life bond between him and Harry. She reached under her cloak, and found the hilt she sought after. From behind her back she drew the blade, the blade that had been part of the contract she had made long ago, the blade that formed her pact. The blade was only 3 inches long and inscribed with runes of the vampiric tongue, words so ancient that the Egyptians could not recall their birth.

"Morideth selth, sede toth anar gertia sede roc." Clare read the words out. _My blood, my life to give life to you. _She remembered the night she heard those words as she lay dieing, dieing for doing right. She plunged the knife into the back of her palm on her left hand. The blade went through with a hissing sound as Clare's eyes rolled back. Blood ran down the blade entering the Harry's wound. Each drop trailed a thin line of red haze, and where they landed the pooling blood boiled. Gemini withdrew his magic. Anything he did know would only hinder the process. The transformation was horrible. The stench of blood filled the room and Harry's back curved as his life was changed. Gemini refused to take his eyes off the scene. This was his fault. Before this Harry had been the equivalent of a much loved project, but now Gemini was responsible for him. He had let the rat slip under his wards. This was his fault.

Later that night Gemini sat in his library, surrounded by thousands of year's worth of knowledge, every rare tome, every book on magic, he had gathered them all. Along the shelves ranged nearly every book ever written on the subject, Gemini had one of the most complete libraries anywhere. His library bested Carthage's. It trumped all the schools of magic combined. No ministry in the world could even hope to rival his vast store of knowledge. And yet as he sat at round table in the center, cut off from the world by the tower of books around him, he was clueless. Not in any of the books (surprisingly few considering the size of his library) on the subject of pact vampires, or vampires, could he find enough information on quarter bloods. The only book that mentioned it was by Kain, entitled 'Blood Pacts of Taint.' a vampire ancient from times unremembered. It said thus:

_Should a half blood sign a pact, then there shall a quarter blood form. Quarter bloods are a stain upon both the mortal and vampiric realm more so than their half blood sires. These crosses are so foul for their disability is unclear. If they should be of the magicians circle then it is possible that their magic shall be as uncontrollable as a werewolf half blood. It is advised to kill such beings on sight, for that is safer for both the parties._

It continued for several thick pages stating possible side effects of quarter blooded vampires, but always there was doubt in Gemini's mind both of the author's research and in his ability to translate the vampiric tongue. Clare was a half blood. A vampire that had been turned not by bite but by willingly sharing blood with a vampire. She had saved the Lord Narculis, an ancient vampire of two thousand years, from a slayers stake while he was poisoned with dead blood. He had been feed the blood of a long dead creature, blood that had lost all of its life. This act was not purely selfless, but Clare's motivations were her own. She had gone in search of some… information, and had ended up saving the Lord. In the process she had been mortally wounded, but being of the old ways Lord Narculis had given Clare his blood on her demand, instead of biting her. Since that day she had been exiled from both worlds, vampiric and wizarding. All for the sake of keeping her magic, even if summoning it became more difficult. The effects of a half blood where widely recorded in comparison with quarter bloods. The effect was the appearance of death, with the exception of the eyes. They do need blood but only to keep intone with their bodies. If a half blood didn't feed they lost more and more perceptions of their needs, and in the case of a witch or wizard, their magic became harder to call forth, although it was still as potent as when they where turned. The attitude towards half bloods varied with the times and the ancients in power, the currently climate was one of hostility, as it was in Kain's day. But there have been periods when half bloods were welcomed for their unique combination of wizard magic and vampiric abilities. Clare fed often, but even then it was always just a little harder for her to perceive magic than for Gemini and as the months wore on she became less and less aware of it.

Half bloods were easy to find out about, but it was the quarter bloods that made him hang his head in despair. Harry was now an almost unrecorded event and the only reference he had advised him to kill the boy. He wouldn't, it was his fault that Harry was injured, he was now responsible. His only hope - it appeared - was to continue his research into vampiric blood. If he could understand how it worked he could possibly create a way to purify blood into a longer lasting, more potent draft that would reduce the side effects of vampirism and lengthen the time needed between feedings. If he succeeded, Clare, and Harry now, could lead a normal life without the need to feed every month, or suffer the side effects.

It was at this time that a headmaster sitting in his office tapped a piece of parchment and said.

"Gemini Francis."

Gemini felt a warm feeling inside his cloak, from the hidden pocket he remove a piece of parchment that he had kept with him for three years now. Of all the times for Dumbledore to get smart, this was the least opportune. Muttering darkly he tapped the parchment, and found himself looking into the face of Albus Dumbledore.


	4. 4 A Turning

**A.N Sorry it's taken so long, but here it is, chapter 4 ready for release. Thanks to my my beta wild MAGIC user, as always.**

Chapter 4: A Turning

Gemini looked into the not so twinkling eyes of Albus Dumbledore.

"So what do you want to know Albus?" Gemini asked placing the parchment on the table and looking down into it, his head resting on his hands.

"I want to know what you have done with Harry." The headmaster replied with an unearthly calm.

"I've taken him in, given him an education and a decent life." Gemini said curtly, deciding to discount the events of the night for the time being.

"What could a… wizard like you offer Harry that compensates for taking him from a loving family?" Dumbledore asked, a sad look in his eye. 'Not going to work old man, I'm nigh on immune to guilt.' Gemini thought.

"Knowledge, Dumbledore, knowledge and power. Two things he will need in the future." Gemini said looking infuriatingly smug.

"He would get knowledge form Hogwarts! A better side of it than you could offer him, I daresay. Harry doesn't need power! He needs his family!"

"Really? I had my family, look where I ended up! A Dark wizard, betrothed to a halfblooded vampire, brooding away his immortality in his mountain. Whereas you, you had a broken family, and look at you now. While I was at Hogwarts you were a rising star, soon to be teacher, and now you are headmaster of one of the most prestigious schools, Chief Mugwump… Need I continue?"

"Don't do this to Harry, Frances, he needs to live his life as a normal child." Was that a touch of desperation Gemini heard?

"Why? So he can beat Voldemort?" Gemini laughed at the surprise flashing across the headmasters face. "Yes Albus, I know about the prophecy. Not the whole thing, mind you, but enough. Let me sum it up as I see it. A prophecy came out that named Harry to be the one to stop Voldy, or some such thing. Voldy launched some preemptive retaliation and winded up dead, but didn't die due to his horcruxes…" Gemini paused at Dumbledore's reaction. "Oh come, don't tell me you didn't figure that out Albus, as I was saying, he didn't die. Harry lived, but because Tom isn't dead Harry still has to kill him. Am I right?" Gemini concluded.

"More or less. I'm surprised by the amount of knowledge you have managed to gain. I daresay it rivals what Tom knew…"

"You'll find that I rival Tom in most things, and surpass him in others." Gemini interrupted. "One of those things being that I'm far more skilled at scrying than he is, although I must say you went to impressive lengths to keep the prophecy secret."

"It was our only hope at the time." Dumbledore said darkly.

"Oh don't be so dramatic, that's my specialty. Now I don't think you wanted to talk about how great I am, as overwhelming as the topic is."

"I had forgotten how vexing you are, Frances." Dumbledore noticed the man's slight twitch at his surname, the man had never liked it. "But your arrogance is the same as ever."

"Why should a guy as great as me change?" Gemini asked. The headmaster snorted in contempt.

"Even you must realize how wrong it is to take Harry from his family." Dumbledore appealed to the man.

"Ah, no, it doesn't occur to me in the least. Besides I couldn't give him back now even if I wanted."

"Why?" Dumbledore asked, his eyes narrowing with suspicion.

"Well how open minded are his relatives? Not very, being the picturesque muggles they are I can assure you."

"They would accept a wizard! Harry is their family." Dumbledore argued.

"Ah, but what if he had become something… more?" Gemini asked, growing weary of arguing with Dumbledore.

"What have you done, Frances?" Dumbledore asked sadly.

"I'll tell you later, I have research to do." Gemini said nonchalantly.

"What! Frances…" the headmaster was cut of as Gemini waved his hand and the parchments, both Dumbledore's and Gemini's, burst into flames. Gemini was already looking away. He didn't want to admit it, but Dumbledore's question had struck a nerve, not a very large one, but still a nerve all the same. What had he done? Both to Clare and to Harry?

Gemini had always been skilled at the more… artistic magics. He excelled at potions, enchantments, runes, interpreting arthimancy (which was very different from calculating arthimatic equations) and scrying. While he was also a powerful wizard, he didn't have a lot of talent for fighting or transfiguration or any of the more precise arts, which were Clare's fields.

Indeed, scrying was what he had used to keep tabs on the most noteworthy events. It was through those skills had had known that Black was innocent, that the marauders where animagus, apart from the werewolf. Indeed, without scrying even a wizard of Dumbledore's power could be out maneuvered, yet another one of Riddle's weaknesses was that he never bothered with scrying. However, he had the numbers to make up for it. Gemini suspected that Dumbledore was proficient at scrying, or had someone proficient working for him. How else could the man seem so all knowing? But it didn't matter, Gemini knew more.

Clare was sitting beside Harry as he lay in his bed, his breathing even as if he were merely asleep. Clare knew the truth, though. She had gone through it herself, in the beginning the human blood fights the vampiric blood, trying to kill it off. It wasn't a painful process, just tiring. In the end a balance would be struck and the changes would be permanent. She felt terrible over what she had done to Harry. For the life she had condemned him to. Gemini had assured her that it would be different for Harry as he would only be a quarter blood, but still, it wasn't just what it did to your body. It also excluded you from both the human and vampiric worlds. You became a nobody, a person scorned by the vampires and shunned by the wizards, sometimes feared.

The only person she had ever met that thought differently was Gemini. He had barely known her before she made her pact with Narculis, and yet he had stayed with her even after that. He was truly an oddity among the wizards.

"How's he doing?" Gemini asked as he sat on the floor next to Clare.

"He's alive. That's better than he would have been I suppose." She replied sullenly.

"I'm sorry." Gemini said softly. Clare looked down at him.

"What?" She asked.

"I'm sorry. I didn't look at the wards closely enough, I didn't get there quick enough, I failed to save Harry, I asked to you use your vampiric blood. I know how that hurt you, Clare. To do that to Harry. You only had to do it because I screwed up. For that I'm sorry." Gemini was looking up at Clare, his eyes locked with hers. 'If only the rest of the world could see him now. The great Gemini, feared dark wizard, apologizing for making a mistake,' Clare thought as she stared at Gemini in shock.

"It wasn't your fault. It was well planned and well executed. I would say Tom has learned from his previous set back." Clare replied looking back at Harry.

"I would agree. And now he is looking for a way to return. And he thinks the best place to look would be here." Gemini said.

"This decides it, we need to train Harry. He is going to return eventually, and Harry will have to face him." Clare said, "This means that someone needs to help him. Provide a more… fatherly figure."

"To help him cope?" Gemini asked.

"Yes, and to help him gain a fresh perspective on life."

"You mean that we need someone like Black."

"Exactly."

"So I suppose that means we will have to break him out of Azkaban?"

"Yes."

"And people believe me to be mad." He said shaking his head.

"Don't be so dramatic. You practically spent a year living with Dementors to create your inferni spells, don't tell me you still fear them."

"Yes, but that was for research, this is for…"

"Harry." Clare said.

"Point taken,. I'll start brewing some recovery potions for Black, shall I? Oh, and Dumbledore finally figured the letter out today." He added. Clare's laughter echoed down the hall as Gemini explained the conversation. Her mirth was cut short when Gemini told her about the final part of the conversation.

"It wasn't your fault, as if those muggles could have done a better job of protecting Harry."

"You're right of course, but still..." Gemini sighed. "I just hope Harry isn't too badly affected by this."

"He won't be. He's only a quarter blooded. How much damage could that do?"

"Clare, you know magic doesn't always work in such a logical way. In fact it rarely does."

"I know." she replied softly. She knew better than most, she was one of the results.

Voldemort was quite pleased with his new body. It suited him well, especially seeing as he had made a deal with the werewolf that was part of the rather unwilling man, making controlling the body so much easier. Voldemort had chanced upon the man stumbling through the dark forests of Romania. He had seized the opportunity and had ended up with the body of a werewolf.

He soon offered the wolf the chance to feast at every full moon, and the wolf accepted, together they had easily overthrown the human mind whose body it was rightfully. So for the last two years Remus Lupin had been the unwilling host of Voldemort. Voldemort was very pleased with his new host, the werewolf body was better able to sustain two souls and so looked to have a normal life span, which had allowed Voldemort to plan and start to call his most loyal back to him.

This, while enough for now, was nowhere near what the Dark Lord wanted. He wanted his own body, with all of its power. So he had sent three of his most trusted Death eaters to that foul pretender Gemini's keep to acquire the secret of his immortality and to return with it. He expected Seria and Herian to die, the two death eaters were powerful, but not nearly enough to defeat Gemini and his half blooded whore. It was Peter that he expected to return, the rat could probably sneak in and retrieve what ever it was that kept Gemini alive. Hopefully Herian and Seria would prove enough of a distraction for that, once they got Peter past the dangerous wards that was. He had decided on a new plan of action. This time he would let his minions do the killing for him, while he went after grander goals. After all, what is a lord without fame? And what is fame without immortality to enjoy it?

Two months after the incident things started to return to normal inside Gemini's keep. Harry had woken up the day after he had nearly died, and aside from looking a little pale, which made his eyes look all the more intense, there was no outward sign that he had joined a very exclusive section of Britain's magical population.

There were two major differences that were less obvious though, one: Harry was now very quiet and completive, he no longer ran everywhere. Nor did he find the things that had once amused him interesting. Gemini and Clare were slightly disturbed by this, as it was disconcerting to have such a young child acting with what some might call maturity, it wasn't however, it just seemed like his personality had changed to something more quiet. Maybe this was temporary, but neither was sure. However, they accepted it because Harry seemed to still be happy, so there was no need to press the matter. The second big difference was the accidental magic. It had increased tenfold, not the power of the magic, just the frequency. It seemed every day something new was being levitated or frozen or cracked or torched, Gemini was impressed at the ease the boy's magic slipped from him. It meant that he would be able to pour lots of power into spells, and cast the more difficult and power demanding ones, however it did not bode well for his control. This was only confirmed when Clare took Harry to get his wand made.

"Ah, Clare so good to see you again! I trust the new wand is still working for you nicely?" Asked a grizzled old man from behind an ancient oak table. The store they had just entered had no real name. It was merely a gathering point, and a store if necessary, for all members of the wand maker's guild. It was one of the few guild branches that still existed, and was based in Egypt, one of the oldest magic communities still alive.

Clare smiled, there was one thing to be said for the guilds of old, it was that they valued every customer, and kept everything very confidential.

"Good morning, Mr. Valtire. Yes, it is still working perfectly." This was the place that Gemini had brought her to after she was made her pact with Narculis. Her old wand just wasn't able to cope with the change in her being, and had become woefully inadequate. Warren Valtire was a master wand maker, and one of the few guild members that only lived at the guild hall. Most others had set up shops to sell the wands they made. It was him that found the complex core that accepted her, siren's vocal cords and dragon heartstring intertwined over a shard of quartz crystal. How the man managed to figure that out was one of the mysteries that the guild held very close.

What had shocked Gemini was the use of a crystal, the use of crystal had been fundamental in the use of staffs, but had almost died out with the art of crafting them. Clare's wand was almost certainly unique in the entire world.

"Good, I am glad to hear that, always good to know one's work is decent." the old man muttered. Clare had to laugh, to call Valtire's wands only 'decent' would make nearly every other wand in existence look like a twig... with leaves still on it.

"I hope you feel like a challenge today." Clare said, her eyes flicking down to Harry beside her, his eye's locked on the man in front of him.

"Ah, hmm, interesting, how about we talk in my work shop? I'm sure there is more to you than meets the eye." Harry nodded, a grin slid onto his face. He was going to be getting a wand! They followed wordlessly as Valtire led them through a series of halls. As they walked, they passed another wand maker heading the other way.

"Morning Ollivander!" Valtire said cheerfully. The other man greeted then with equal cheeriness

"Good morning, Valtire, Clare, Potter." He said with a nod. Both Harry and Clare stopped, staring at the man who just continued on his way. Warren chuckled at their expressions.

"He has a habit of doing that, you get used to it after a while. Damn fine wand crafter if ever I saw one, and very good at core selection too." Valtire said as they continued along their own way eventually.


	5. 5 Breaking Azkaban

**A.N Hello once agian. Here it is, chapter five of New blood. Thanks to wild Magic user, the beta, for all the beta-ing. Enjoy.**

Chapter 5: Breaking Azkaban

Valtire's workshop resembled the man himself, a little bit shabby, but oozing knowledge about his craft. Every surface seemed to hold a parchment or book, and various items were stacked along shelves with no apparent method of organization. The square room had a large circular work table near the back, assorted tools used for the trade littered across its surface.

"Haven't got around to tidying it yet?" Clare asked with a raised eyebrow.

"I did. However it got cluttered again." Warren replied. Clare just shrugged, it had been a long time since her last visit.

"Now let's see what we have here." He said turning towards Harry.

"Harry is a quarter blood. Before the pact, he seemed to be inclined towards holly and phoenix feather." Clare supplied. Valtire nodded, looking the boy up and down.

"Ah, yes hm, never made a wand for a quarter blood before... Let's see, hm, yes. You seem to have a bit of power behind you, Harry." He said. Harry's mouth twitched slightly as if about to smile, as he lifted his hand. Warren looked behind him to see the various items he had left on his desk floating.

"You can control your magic?!" He asked in shock.

"Sort of, Gemini got annoyed after I set his enchanting and blood ritual rooms alight, he's been teaching me to control my accidental magic as wandless magic ever since." Harry replied.

"However, he still has to master the art of maintaining control." Clare said with a smirk, as if to illustrate her point a few of the items shook, before dropping back to the table. The others rocketed up. Harry managed to stop most of them before they hit the ceiling, but one old tome whacked into it and sent a large dust cloud down upon them.

"Hm, impressive, but your control is lacking?"

"Yea." Harry replied. Warren didn't seemed disturbed at the vocabulary the boy had, after all with Clare and Gemini as parental figures, he was surprised Harry wasn't something more exotic than a quarter blood, which was impressive as less than three percent of the vampiric population were quarter bloods.

"Try waving this." Warren said, handing the boy one of his testing wands, something Gemini had been trying to get for three months (ever since he had started to explore Harry's wand compatibility, he had wanted one of these rare objects). Harry took the wand, looking at it from handle to tip. He could sense the magics layered on it, like a great artwork, like Gemini's enchantments, but a hundred time more complex, he would have to tell him to practice more. Ten and a half inches, composite of woods, multi-cored, heavily enchanted to allow both mixes to work and rare as hell, even Harry could appreciate the item. He had read a book on wands while waiting for his magic to settle enough after his pact to be receptive to a wand, and so knew a little of the foci. He gave it a wave, a lazy swish. A wave of lighting flew forth, exploding into a dazzling array of sparks against the far wall. Warren stroked an imaginary beard on his chin.

"Try more of a jabbing motion." He commanded, his eyes fixed on the wand. Harry jabbed, this time a stream of lightening flew forward, striking the wall with immense power, and another cloud of sparks. When the lighting stopped, the testing wand was smoking slightly from the tip, and there was a scorch mark on the wall. Warren walked over and took the wand from Harry.

"Well, you said he'd be a challenge, and once again you fail to disappoint." He said taking a chair and sat facing Harry.

"Was that lighting?" Harry asked, his eyes wild with the feeling that had just coursed through him.

"Hm, not real lighting, no." Warren supplied, Harry looked a little disappointed, "It was more like raw magic, however lighting and raw magic are very similar, the fact you draw that and not colored sparks from the wand is quite interesting. It says that you have nearly no innate control over your magic." Clare looked up,

"I thought that was impossible, how can he have no control over his magic?" she asked.

"Not no control, just so little it's hard to notice it. Also his magic is completely trampling over the wand's cores, woods and enchantments." Valtire said, waving at the still smoking wand. "That wand is designed to pick out cores and woods that respond to the person, Harry's magic just disregarded them all, and forced it's way out."

"So I can't use a wand?" Harry asked suddenly.

"Yes and no, you could in theory use any wand, but you'd burn it out, wands are not designed for such rampant magic."

"But ever since Merlin's age wands have become the best foci of a wizards magic." Clare said.

"Yes, Merlin made incredible advances in wand crafting, and what's happening here is very similar to what happened before Merlin found ways to bind the core and wood, Harry's magic is burning too wild to be contained in wands, just like Merlin used to burn through wands at the rate of one a day."

"So until the art of wand crafting improves, Harry is too powerful to use a wand?" Clare asked.

"It's not a matter of power, just control, wands are meant to receive only the magic the wizard wants it to, even in overcharged spells only the wizards power relating to that school of magic is used. When transfiguring, his talents at transfiguration are used, not his talents at charms, enchantment, pyromancy, cryomancy, blood magic's or any of those, just transfiguration. Harry has no such definitions to his magic, it is all just one undefined lump of power. That's why the wand chooses the wizard, to match the core's power to the user's greatest talents, otherwise the wand can and will be burnt out." Warren took a deep breath, his brow furrowed in thought. "It must be a quarter blood affliction, if he chose a holly, phoenix tail combination before he was turned. As for a solution... I'm not sure. If he can learn to control it wandlessly then that helps, but for things that require more finesse, charms and wards especially, he will have trouble." Warren rubbed his brow, trying to decided on something.

"What?" Clare asked, her eyes boring into the man, she wanted to here everything.

"Well, he has enough power to use a rune staff, but that might limit the variety of spells he can cast." Valtire final said, looking slightly off color, "Unfortunately, I can't make one, the guild concerns it's self with wands and only wands. I only know of them because Merlin mentioned them in his earlier works, think of them as the father of wands. As for what they do, again I don't know, The tomes only mentioned that they could channel more power than any wand, but required a clearer mind to use." From then on the conversation became more of an interrogation, Clare drilled Warren for every bit of information he had, while Harry wandered around the room, looking at the various items.

Warren didn't have anymore information, but that hadn't stopped Clare. She had gone through his mind with legilimency, without his knowledge of course, and found nothing more. Eventually she gave up, and she and Harry left the guild hall, Harry seemed a little crest fallen over not receiving a wand, but Clare could feel his thoughts, he was smug over something.

"So what do you think Harry?" Clare asked.

"I think that Gemini is going to be getting a new task soon." he replied, as they walked along in the shadows, while the sun would not kill them, like it would a real vampire after prolonged exposure, it was very uncomfortable.

"Oh really, and what makes you think he won't make you do the research yourself?"

"The fact that I have this." Harry said holding up a testing wand. Clare nodded in thought.

"So when you used it, some of the weaker enchantments failed, and you assumed that they where the security ones?" Harry nodded.

'Oh well,' Clare thought, 'at least Gemini will be happy.'

Gemini sat in his library researching rune staffs, he was slightly put out that Harry had basically ordered him to, subtly-to his credit-but still, being bossed about by a child was demeaning. He could just take the testing wand from him, but Gemini felt it a good lesson in supply and demand for Harry. It turns out that there was a lot of information on rune staffs, although the information dropped off after Merlin's time. Rune staffs could channel wild magic's easily, without the need for the selective foci Merlin invented. However they were very restrictive on the selection of spells they could cast. It was a staff of wood with a foci of crystal. Along it's surface the runes for certain spells could be carved, the spells are by touching the rune and envisioning the spell. The number of spells are dependent on how many are carved into the staff. Wandless magic makes up for the lack of variety. Apparently before the versatility and ease of use that came with the rapid advancements in wand crafting, everyone was taught wandless magic, most struggled and could only manage the most basic of spells, but it was balanced by the easy power of the staffs. They also had at least rudimentary occlemency, as when staff casting, instead of drawing the rune in the air with a wand, it had to be envisioned in the mind. Gemini leaned back in his chair, this was interesting. The staffs only used a generic core, as the talents of the wizard were almost ignored by the staff, but several books mentioned being able to focus staffs on the different schools, but it advised against it, as it would make those staffs even more limited in their spells. The staff then focused the wizards magic into that school, meaning that it wouldn't matter where the wizards talents lay.

'This could work,' Gemini thought, 'occlemency would also help his control, and the staff would only have to cover the spells he cannot do wandlessly. He will be able to do most things wandlessly, the only problems would occur when he has large charms or wards that needed complex rune patterns.' Gemini carried on thinking, realizing that they still had to recover Black, if the man could teach Harry some combat, then Gemini could focus more on his research, which was still throwing up a few problems.

Sirius Black cringed in his cell, the Dementors wandering the halls turned towards him, sensing his fear even in his animagus form. He had so few happy memories left, he had done everything he could to prevent the Dementors from taking them, his basic occlemency, staying in his animagus form, trying not to think about them, but it was a losing battle, the Dementors had taken them one by one, a memory here, a memory there, and after five years, he had almost none left, a life of joy torn to shreds. He was still waiting for a trail, he held onto the hope, that one day, Dumbledore would come and give him a trail, but it was a thin hope, he knew, the look of hurt and betrayal, along with the utter devastation that he had seen in the aged headmaster's eyes was enough to tell him that he would have to wait a very long time, if it ever came at all. There was a low rumble and the foundations of the fortress shook, the Dementors turned away from tormenting Black and with a shriek of anger floated towards the stairs.

Gemini stood on the outskirts of the jail, his hair blowing in the icy air. Across his skin runes blazed, two sets one a bright blue, and another a crimson red. The blood magic rituals had been to both fight of the magic suppressant wards of the jail, and to increase the power of his pyromancy, the fire magics. They would fade after a day or two, as would the effects. But they would always be there, invisible and ready to be reactivated by his will and blood. He sent another blast of fire, a deep crimson flaming stream that had the force of a battering ram. The already flaming doors of the fortress gave way as the flames tore through them. There where several screams as some of the resident aurors where set alight. Then a different shriek filled the air. Glancing up Gemini saw scores of Dementors streaking towards him. Clare vanished inside of the doors, running towards the suffering aurors. She would be getting Black out, Gemini was just there to blow shit up. He felt misery settle over him, as the Dementors approached. He raised his wand.

"_Dementia Inferni!"_ he said, the purple hue spewed forth, more than before. These spells worked of Dementor magic, meaning the worse he felt, the better they worked.

"Take them!" Gemini shouted, the wraths launched into the air, they where slightly bigger than the Dementors but were out numbered, their 15 against more than two hundred Dementors. Time to wield the pyromancy to full effect.

"_Incandendio!" _Gemini waved his wand, watching as several Dementors burst into flames, despite their auroras of cold about themselves. He slipped his wand back into the wrist holster, abandoning all restraint. He wasn't suited to battle, and so tended to really more on impressive spells, than real dueling masters. He flicked his wrist and a fireball appeared in his hand, another flick and it hurled toward the Dementors. He carried on hurling fireballs from both hands, sending Dementor after Dementor to the ground screaming. One of his wraiths fell to the ground, the five Dementors that had been fighting it, followed it to the ground. About a score of Dementors shot through the opening, before the other wraiths managed to seal it up. Gemini put his hands together at the wrists and curled his fingers, with a muttered word and stream of flames shot forth. The Dementors screamed as the magical flamethrower engulfed them. Gemini gritted his teeth, sweat breaking on his brow as the heat in front of him increased. He pulled his hands apart, breaking the spell. Gemini raised his hands straight out, just above shoulder height,

"_Dementia Inferni_" two streams of purple haze flew from his hands, as he cast the two spells simultaneously, another thirty wraiths rose to join the battle above him. As the Dementors reeled under the new wave of attackers, Gemini pulled a bottle from his belt and took a deep swig of a magical restorative. He felt the fatigue that always accompanied channeling too much magic to quickly leave him and he started to hurl more fire balls, taking far too much joy from the screams of the immortal Dementors as he made them suffer.

Clare ran along the dark corridors, an aura of darkness surrounding her, blending in with the shadows, a vampiric ability that she had inherited. It was much weaker than a true vampire's, but more than enough to allow her to slip past the criminals and scant guards that had stayed at their posts. She slit the throat of another auror that had his back turned towards her, she licked the blood quickly, not staying long enough to feed, but reluctant to let such an opportunity pass by. She lowered his corpse to the floor and moved on. She reach her goal at the top of several flights of stairs, the door was thick but only made of wood, reinforced with steel straps, nothing unmanageable. She pulled another knife out of it's sheaf, and quickly cut the runic pattern to activate a similar blood magic ritual to Gemini's on her wrist. Blue runes flared back to life as the blood was spilled, she felt a chill go through her as her blood ran cold. She shook her head, getting her bearings, facing the door she pulled her aura tightly around her.

"_Obsturia nullifaction" _she whispered, and walked through the door.

Sirius Black was very curious, as he pressed his face against the barred window of his cell, he could just see the very edges of some kind of battle The Dementors were bursting into flame while battling some sort of... horrors that had just appeared out of nowhere. He was straining to see more, when he felt a shadow fall across his back. He spun around to see a cloud of darkness enter his cell. From inside this cloud a beautiful pale woman strode forth covered in glowing blue graffiti, the amber eyes freezing him to spot, even as he noticed the blood to one side of her mouth.

"Hello Mr. Black." She said softly, even as the screams of the Dementors drifted in through the window. She lazily raised a hand. A stunner knocked Sirius out before he could even try to form a sentence. Clare knelt down beside the man, and easily picked him up, then muttering the spell again, walked through the door. Once in the corridor she picked him up with a wandless levitation charm, leaving her wand free for defense, with the blue runes glowing on her skin stealth was pointless.

Gemini was having fun, it had been more than seven years since he had last caused total havoc and had a decent battle. He might not be the best dueler, but his power more than made for it and the adrenalin rush was addictive. The Dementors couldn't die, and as soon as one was extinguished it would leap back into the fray. He had been at it for more than fifteen minutes, and his blood magic was seeping into his veins from over use, his veins now glowing the same color as his red runes, not as brightly, but it was a sign of magical seepage. His brow was covered in sweat from the heat, and several patches of ground were glowing red, others had set into glass. He drew another potion from his belt, and downed the whole thing, the red in his veins dulled a bit, as the potion suppressed the harmful effects of an over used blood ritual. The Dementors were careful now, trying to keep one of Gemini's wraiths between them and the wizard, even for an immortal fiend like the Dementor, burning was not pleasant. One of the bolder ones dived towards him; Gemini raised a wall of fire in front of the Dementor. It was going to fast to avoid it, and flew through. Gemini side stepped the burning heap as it rolled along the ground towards him, as it went past he turned and using the same burning/blasting curse he had used to blow the door of its hinges, drove the fiercely burning Dementor into the rocks. Behind it was a trench of glowing stone. As he turned he saw Clare coming towards him, the limp body of Black floating behind her. He nodded and sent another thirty wraiths up, to hold of the Dementors, as he gave up the offensive. Drawing a knife from behind his back he carved an intricate series of runes into his left wrist, below the one for the pyromancy. A light blue danced over his skin and a thunderclap sounded, as the all the wards of the area were shredded by the release of wild magic. As soon as this happened, Clare, Gemini and Black disapparated. And then twenty aurors appeared, the wards that Gemini had set up to block them breaking, along with the much heavier wards to stop apparation off of the island.


	6. 6 Blood Magic and the Press

Chapter 6 Blood Magic & The Press

Gemini sat at his desk in his library, massaging his arm, it was still aching from the over used pyromancy blood magic. Powerful dark wizard or not, setting Dementors alight was very difficult, but extremely satisfying. The runes that had graced his body had faded early, partly due to another ritual he had done to give him greater control over his blood magic rituals, and partially due to several potions.

Blood magic was an obscure branch of magic. It had to be preformed in certain ritual chambers, steeped with magic (which Harry's magic seemed very fond of torching) while carving the runes into your skin as another's life bleeds out onto the a similar/related set of runes on the floor. It was considered dark magic because of the murder, but Gemini didn't care, he had completed his first ritual at the age of 16, as a student. Runes were an ancient and effective way of tapping into magic, once the runes were placed on the flesh; they were there permanent, although they only appeared when called upon by carving activation runes into the skin.

The rituals could be strengthened by doing the ritual repeatedly, killing each time, or changing the runes slightly to enhance different aspects of the magic. The magic once turned on, ran for several days usually, the runes clearly visible, and the effects were tied to the owners blood only, it couldn't affect anyone else. Well, not usually, but Gemini knew ways to circumvent nearly all the rules of blood magic, and he was working on the others, and was improving his powers very quickly. Clare shook her head as she leaned against the door frame looking at Gemini.

'_So young in immortality, and already so bored, that he peruses the most dangerous magic's available, and nearly anything else that catches his attention... So unvampiric._' She thought. Vampires instinctively knew how to handle the long decades of immortality, and she had received part of that instinct. Gemini however, worked like a mortal with limited days, and one day far in the future, he may find himself with nothing to do because of that.

"Black's recovering, he should wake up soon." She said.

"Good, I have the recovery potions ready in the nearest lab." Gemini said. He had several potions labs and blood ritual rooms, the nearest being the least secure, the furthest being deep beneath the labyrinth under the keep, guarded by _very_ nasty things. Clare nodded,

"When are you going to introduce him to Harry?" She asked. "I've read his mind; he's stable and has no intentions of harming Harry."

"And us?" Gemini asked; more amused than threatened by Black and nearly everyone else who had ever intended him harm.

"He barely knows us, the only clear memory he has relating to us is Dumbledore calling us 'Deranged madmen with no sense of morality, and the maturity and foresight of first years.'" She said, watching Gemini's reaction.

"Was that by any chance after I kidnapped a certain vampire, which caused all the new generation vampires going to Voldemort's side during the first war?" He asked with a frown.

"Two years into the war, yes."

"I needed her for that blood magic regenerative ritual, her magic and blood were just too good for that ritual to pass up. Besides the vampires that joined Voldemort were little more than mindless beasts that deserved to be culled, nothing like real vampires."

"Many who fought against Voldemort died because of those vampires."

"Made them less likely to come after us after the war."

"True, and that ritual was very powerful, wasn't it?" Clare said with a grin.

"Like I said, she had good blood." Gemini replied with an equal grin. "As for your original question... I'll introduce them as soon as Black is healthy again." Clare had moved over during the conversation and was now sitting on Gemini's knee; she took his arm, his left as he used that the most for wandless casting.

"Does it hurt?" She asked holding his arm gently.

"Yes, I will need to enhance the suppressive ritual again. This means I'll also have to undergo another continuous activation ritual at the same time."

"You've done that before what's the problem?"

"The magic already sunk into the continuous activation ritual for the suppressive ritual will be released; I will need something to store it in; however nothing I have ever created is strong enough."

"Could you not just channel it into another ritual?" Clare asked. She didn't specialise in blood magic, and she had completed only a few simple rituals, never using Gemini's experimental ones (like the suppressive and continuous activation ones), but she knew most the theory, and was smart.

"Hmm, a three way ritual? A suppressant, bound to the continuous, with the excess magic being channelled into the third... possible, difficult but possible." Gemini sank into thought, conjuring paper and starting to write, or rather scrawl, across it. Clare rolled her eyes, this was what she had meant earlier when thinking about the way he worked like a mortal.

"Come Gemini, leave it for now." He looked up at her, and was suddenly torn. Entranced by the way she was looking at him, but also fascinated by the idea of a trying to do three rituals at once. Clare saw his indecision and let some vampiric magic seep into her eyes, at the same time she smiled. He stood and smiled back at her, and they left the library.

Sirius Black was a very confused man. He had woken up with a splitting head ache; he had always had a bad reaction to stunning spells. Once he had managed to get past the pain he had quickly realized that he wasn't in Azkaban any more. He grinned at the thought of being free, free at last! But he was slightly disturbed by what he could recall of his rescuer.

She had not looked like anyone from the Order, nor did he ever remember seeing her before, not to mention those horrors he had seen fighting the Dementors. No one in the Order would have a problem setting those twisted hell spawn called dementors on fire, although few would have the power to manage it, but at the same time they would never summon those... things. Sirius looked about himself; he was in a very nice room, decorated in a sort of Victorian feel, if he was right. An elegant mahogany chair, intricately carved with swirls along the legs and up the back sat in front of a deep brown stone desk, that held a very similar design to the chairs, with swirls along the legs, but it seemed to be growing out of the floor.

Along the same wall as the desk were book cases in the same stone, which seemed to sprout from the wall. The walls themselves were a dark shade of red with a very light shade of brown mixed in as streaks here and there. The bed he was in was mahogany, and the covers were maroon and a brown/gold pattern of creeping vines. It reminded him a bit of some old pure blood homes, the ones with guest rooms decorated according to the tastes of other pure bloods who were allies. Although the colours here were mostly dark, the room was well lit, magical torches burned in bronze holders along the wall. It was very medieval pure blood style décor, and yet some how still tasteful (something pure bloods of that era were not known for.)

He got out of the bed slowly, listening for any signs of attack, but-hearing nothing-he relaxed, the floor as covered in a carpet, a similar colour to the walls. He rolled his eyes. That was going just a little too far with the design. He didn't know where he was, but he would not stand to look like a prisoner, not now, not ever again. He walked over to the cupboards along one of the walls. Again the décor had gone too far, the cupboard doors were stone, and had the same swirling design engraved all over the front. Cautiously opening it he looked in.

Inside was a large variety of clothes. Assuming that anyone wealthy enough to go so far with the design of this room wouldn't begrudge him a set of clothes, he pulled out several items. Sirius was starting to feel a little bit like his old self, not happy, not cocky like he had been, even during most of the war, but the in built defiance that had made him a Gryffindor, that had made him reject his family and the Dark side, the defiance that almost made him want to dare the person who owned this house to challenge him over the theft of the clothes, was returning, just a little bit, but it felt good.

He supposed that the more drastic effects of the Dementors, such as their ability to alter the personality, wore off relatively quickly, and that felt good. He soon found another door, but it was so tightly sealed with magic he couldn't open it. A quick look about the room and he found another door, this one led into a bathroom. His mouth dropped open in surprise. If the bedroom had been ostentatious, this was over the top. The room was completely stone, all the same red brown stone as the rest of the rooms, but a single piece, the taps, the toilet, the bath, the sinks, they all just sprouted from the floors and walls, no seams. This had to be magically done. The bowl of the sink and the bath tub had a black and brown colour instead of red, just to break the monotony of the colours. He didn't know anyone who had ever done this, it was almost perfectly smooth, apart from the stone floor, which had grooves carved into it, to prevent people from slipping and cracking their heads open. After all blood, clashed with the other colours. Sirius shrugged.

'Might as well make the most of it.' he thought, as he ran himself a bath.

OoOoOoO

Dumbledore was not happy, not by any stretch of the imagination. The attack on Azkaban had been perfectly executed. Nearly all the aurors had been killed, the Dementors were harbouring a deep resentment over being so soundly beaten, and the ministry was trying to get him to fix it.

He had interviewed one of the five auroras who had survived, he was the only one who had seen the events and survived. The other four had been at the far end of the prison at the time. The auror, Nicholas, had been in the corner of the front room when the doors had been blown open by the _Ignius Barith _curse, a powerful fire spell which held enough force to act as a flaming battering ram. Nicholas was quick enough to raise a _Pyro Protego _shield, a corruption of the popular shield to make it very effective against fire.

He said he saw a woman run in as soon as the doors fell, she went over to one of the injured auroras and asked him something, when he refused to answer, she looked him in the eye and Nicholas felt some odd magic emanate from her. The auror then answered her, and she killed him, before wrapping shadows around herself and running into the prison proper. Once she left, he had heard the screams of Dementors coming from outside and carefully advanced to the door, looking around the shattered frame, he saw a strange sight. A man with glowing red and blue lines covering his body stood in the centre of a great battle, The Dementors were being held of by some horrors, and the man was flinging fireballs wandlessly at the Dementors.

What had shocked Nicholas the most was that he was succeeding in setting them alight. Burning Dementors was one of the few ways to hurt them, but it was very difficult because they always had an aura of cold about themselves that usually prevented flames. Dumbledore had viewed the memory in his pensieve, and had instantly wished he wasn't who he was. He would rather be anyone else rather than deal with this. He had recognised Gemini.

'Power mad megalomaniac.' Dumbledore thought bitterly to himself, knowing that it was an inaccurate measure of the man. Gemini had given up the quest for power soon after Clare was turned, instead focusing on his research, which was still entrench very firmly on the 'Dark' side of magic. Worst of all they had taken Black. How could they have done that? The man had betrayed Lily and James to the dark side... in fact maybe that was why they wanted him. He didn't trust Gemini, something was going on, although he doubted the man would harm Harry, as the prophesy said they needed him to kill Voldemort, and Gemini would hate the competition. Dumbledore sighed, he needed to prepare a statement for the press to calm the panic this would cause.

OoOoOoO

**Azkaban Broken!?**

_By Rita Skeeter, junior reporter_

_Yesterday the wizarding prison of Azkaban was broken into, and a dangerous felon freed by persons as yet unknown. _

_Sirius Black was rescued from a lifetime sentence yesterday when twenty of the twenty five aurors who guarded the prison were murdered. It is assumed that the persons were also followers of You-Know-Who, who was stopped five years ago by Harry Potter. _

_Black, who betrayed the Potter's to the Dark Lo\d, is suspected to be out to 'finish the job' by killing the Boy-Who-Lived. _

_Aurors in the Ministry have been quoted as saying "While the break out is a terrible incident, we are confident of both mister Potter's safety, and mister Black's imminent arrest." When pressed for details on Potter's location the Ministry refused to release any information, merely saying that "he is safe and sound, no harm will come to him where he is." _

_Dementors have been dispatched from the island to search for the infamous criminal and any accomplices. The Ministry has assured the public that these dementors pose no threat to the public at large, that they are also firmly under control and that their search area will be confined to suspect areas, although these will not be mentioned to the public, as a matter of security._

_Headmaster Albus Dumbledore of Hogwarts School of Witchcraft and Wizardry has stated that while he agrees with the urgent need to capture Black he does not approve of leaving Azkaban so undefended, in response the Ministry has posted an additional team of aurors on the island. _

_While the investigation continues this reporter promises to bring you the truth and facts behind this tragic event._

_(more information on Sirius Black, pg5)_

OoOoOoO

Voldemort was in a dangerous mood, he was very displeased over the loss of Peter, the man had been useful. While this was a very bad thing, what was worse was what he was planning. He needed to make a statement, to tell the world that Voldemort was back, and that he was ready to rule. The situation at Azkaban presented a unique opportunity. With the most reliable Dementors (the ones that had received the most compulsion charms from the ministry) away hunting for Black it left the prison weak, even with the extra aurors, and he was convinced that some of the dementors would join him now, which made the chance to replenish his forces even more appealing. He would soon be powerful enough to strike again, and then, then the magical world would pay, and pay dearly at that! Another servant was dismissed with a task.

The Dark Lord leaned back. He did not need to worry about Harry Potter yet, he was too young to be of any consequence, and no one else was able to stop him. He rose from his throne in the ancient castle that had belonged to some vampire lord until Voldemort had killed him after gaining Remus' body.

"Come." he said, the remaining death eaters stood, trailing behind their Lord. "Let's free our brethren." he said, raising a hand, and remotely shattered the hastily (and truth be told, rather poorly) constructed wards at Azkaban, erected after Gemini's final ritual had shattered every ward on the island. With several pops the death eaters and Dark Lord left to free their imprisoned comrades.

The next day another article in the Daily Prophet announced that only a day after Sirius Black was broken out of jail, a mass break out had taken place, and every death eater released, the dark mark had been spotted over the island, and the corpses of the forty aurors who had been there were in a heap in the entrance. The dementors had vanished as well, Black was the prime suspect. The news was so damning, that the current minister has resigned and a replacement would be found soon.

Gemini pulled back from his scrying pool, this was getting interesting, Voldemort had something planned, and Gemini looked forward to messing it up. He walked out of the darkened room, he had several projects to check on, and Clare had just gone to meet Black.


	7. 7 Hello Harry

Chapter 7: Hello Harry.

Clare walked into Sirius's room, at middle depth in the mountain castle called Gemini's Keep, it was moderately well guarded, the biggest threat wandering the halls on this level would be a cockatrice, a beast often confused with the basilisk, but much less dangerous. It's gaze caused confusion or paralysis, dependant on the beast's age. The cockatrice looked like a young basilisk, but folded along it's sinuous body were a set of leathery wings. When folded they acted as a sort of armour, when extended the cockatrice would use them for brief moments of flight, no more than five minutes, to escape anything it couldn't kill.

She had yet to figure out why Gemini insisted on holding monsters as guards on certain levels and areas of the keep, the most likely reason was because it amused him. Blacks rooms were beautiful, at least to her eyes, a little dark perhaps, but in a calming sort of way. She sat down and waited. Black was still asleep, he had yet to meet anyone, in his two days here, apart from the house elf, Misseld, Clare believed, who brought him his meals and recovery potions.

So far he had been rather calm at the situation, he had seemed to decide that anyone who would rescue him from Azkaban probably didn't have anything worse to do to him.

On the bed Sirius stirred.

"Hello, Mr Black." Clare said.

"Morning Misse... wait you're to big." He said groggily, his eyes not completely open yet.

"You're lucky I won't take that personally, Mr Black." Clare replied, her tone wasn't cold, but it wouldn't be defrosting anything too soon either. Sirius suddenly sat up straight, and pried his eyes open.

"You're the one who rescued me!" He exclaimed, after only a brief moment of thought. Clare nodded, as if she were speaking to Harry, and not a fully grown, and supposedly dark, wizard.

"I guess I have to say thanks then, Sirius Black, at your service milady." He said with a bow, well as much of a bow as anyone can manage while sitting up in bed. He looked up at her with a grin, hoping to find out how she would take the jest, Gryffindor or no, every Black learnt how to deal with people, it was how they gathered power after all. Clare smiled back, knowing that if she made a good impression now, it would help the following events.

"Careful, Mr. Black, I may hold you to that." She replied.

"As if a woman as beautiful as you could do any ill!" Sirius said in mock horror at the thought. This time Clare did laugh. She couldn't help it.

'_How shallow, to make a judgement so swiftly.' _she thought.

"Mr. Black, I take it you have no idea who I am or where you are?" She asked instead.

"Not a clue, and call me Sirius please, I can't stand all this pureblood shit. Far to formal for me."

"Very well Sirius, I am Clare Crowcaller, and you are in Gemini's Keep." She was being too blunt she knew it, but it was just too tempting to scare the man, and he had practically asked for it. As it was Sirius's face turned pale, and he glanced either way, as if looking for a way to escape.

"Why so panicky, Sirius?" She asked with a raised eyebrow. "We rescued you and helped you recover, we're hardly going to kill you now aren't we?" Sirius calmed a bit, but still looked pale, and maybe a little green.

"We?" He asked, suddenly his eyes grew wide and his face lost whatever colour it had managed to recover. "You mean Gemini?" He asked quietly.

"Of course, do you think I could have held off the Dementors and rescued you?" She asked with a slight smile, perfectly calm, while Sirius was very agitated.

"Why did you rescue me? Somehow, even if what I have heard of you is exaggerated, I doubt it was for truth and justice." He said, recovering his own calm relatively quickly, considering the circumstances.

"Well, that is a story worth telling, the gist is we need your help, and you need ours, but before we go into details, how about breakfast? Do you drink coffee?" She asked, Sirius nodded, trying to figure out what Dark wizards could want with him, let alone need from him.

Clare told started with the Gemini kidnapping Harry from his muggle relatives. Sirius had had a mild out burst at this, ranting on about how Lily would have never approved of leaving Harry with her sister. He almost seemed thankful that Gemini stole him before he had even entered their home. Clare smiled inwardly, if this planted the seeds of doubt in his mind regarding Dumbledore, all the better for her and Gemini.

She told him how she and Gemini raised Harry, his tuition by the two of them. Sirius frowned disapprovingly at the fact that they sometimes forgot about him for a day or two, but voiced no objection, opting to wait for the rest of the story Clare assumed.

When she came to tell of the recent attack, and Harry's pact, it seemed that he only kept quiet because he was too shocked to say anything.

After that it was only a short tale of how they had discovered how incompatible Harry was with a wand, the way he seemed to have been maturing unnaturally quickly since then, and of how he was controlling his accidental magic.

"And so Sirius finally we come to why we need you. The truth is, while Harry may be more mature than most his age, and very knowledgeable about certain things of magic, but he is rather ignorant of how the world works. Gemini and I are too anti-social and busy to cover certain areas of his training. We want you to be help." She didn't like asking for help, it left a bitter taste in her mouth. The things that she would suffer for Harry! Sirius for his part looked a bit shocked (again).

"You want me to help raise Harry?" He asked after a moment of thought. "How do you know that I'm not a mass murderer?"

"A couple of things really, one I read your mind after we brought you here, and two, we have Pettigrew in a cell a few levels below us." Black looked like someone had slapped him with a rather large fish.

"Didn't I mention that he was the one to almost kill Harry a few months ago?" She added innocently. Black's face changed completely, all shock vanished, and a great anger took its place.

"I'll kill him... I'll kill that rat..." Sirius muttered under his breath, his hands were shaking slightly, and twitching, as if looking for a wand to grab.

"You'll do no such thing, not yet at least." Clare said, Sirius met her eyes with a rather impressive glare. "The 'rat' may serve several purposes yet. Gemini wants to dangle him in front of Dumbledore's nose, preform some experiments on his dark mark, and finally we can use him to secure your freedom more permanently, but that can also be accomplished with a corpse I suppose." She was pleased with Blacks reaction, the last thing Harry needed was someone without a backbone around. However Black seemed to have a very sturdy one. Sirius got his anger under control.

"Fine." he bit out, "But if anyone gets to kill him, it's me, got it?" Clare nodded, calm as ever.

"When do you want to meet Harry?" She asked.

"Let me have a shower and I'll be right out." He said, his mood shifting to a better one as the topic changed for the better.

"Good, you can meet Gemini, and he will take you to Harry." She said, smiling into her coffee as his face paled slightly, he is getting better, she thought.

'_All things considered that went rather well._' she said to herself mentally. As she stood to leave and let Sirius move about his rooms freely, she called for Misseld and asked her to clear the plate from Black's beside table and from the table were she had sat.

Harry was enjoying flying, now more than ever, since that... attack... awhile ago he'd felt different, as if part of him was no longer there, he felt a little lost. In the air that changed, he felt the rush of the wind and everything seemed to snap back into focus. He was better now than ever before, he felt magic of the broom as it lifted him, he felt it strain as he push it, he felt it hum with power at speeds. He could feel how to fly it. He pulled up into another loop, savouring the rush, anyone watching would find it hard to believe that this was just a old boy at play.

Gemini enjoyed his work, his studies into the blackest corners of potions and alchemy was what currently held his attention, he was almost done with the special potion for Clare and Harry, and even some of the more moral vampires, if they were interested in paying. He felt as if he had over come the final hurdle, bottling the enhanced blood and then adding long lasting charms, no matter how complex, hadn't extended the effects of his blood replacer potion. Instead the blood seemed to be even less effective than normal blood. It was then that he had been struck by the idea of using a standard blood replenishing potion as the base and... Well he had been in the deep potion dungeon since, he had been working eight hours so far, no large stretch really.

Clare however had different ideas apparently.

"Gem, Black's awake. I've just spoken to him." She said quietly from the door. Gemini sighed, he would have to meet the man now, oh well, couldn't be avoided.

"Okay, I'll be meet him in the crypt." He said with a smirk. "Just let me put these potions back into stasis."

Gemini lounged in the crypt, a room that was made to be an exact copy of a graveyard right down to the corpses in the graves, or more importantly, right down to the rare plants that only grew in such places.

Gemini was seated in a throne of grey stone, as hard and unyielding as his features, although he had been rather liberal with his use of cushioning charms, just because he didn't walk in the light didn't mean he couldn't enjoy comfort. The crypt was moist, the air heavy with mist that never cleared, the lighting mimicked that of the moon, a haunting silvery pale glow. The grass was grey, whether due to the lighting or the grass itself was hard to tell. There were headstones littered around, here and there a tree dared to grow, their stark and barren branches reaching for the sunlight that would never come.

Gemini liked this room, it was quietening, calming. Surrounded by those who were dead, those who had found peace, or maybe the last great adventure or maybe just oblivion, it puzzled and soothed him at the same time. The house elves had a tough time maintaining it, but delighted in how it pleased their master and still strove to make the copy ever more like the original.

Sirius Black walked into the room, his eyes widening as he surveyed the area, the room wasn't massive, but it would never be called small, or even just adequate, either.

"Hello Sirius." Gemini said, as he stood up from his throne.

"Wizard Francis." Sirius replied bowing as he used a very old and formal greeting. Gemini gritted his teeth but decided to not comment on the use of his last name... yet. He shook Sirius's hand, hoping that it would convey the message that he would preferred a more modern conversation.

"Take a seat." He said raising a hand palm up. A similar chair to Gemini's rose from the ground, a little less ornamental, and slightly smaller, but by no means an insult.

"Uh, Thank you." Sirius replied carefully taking a seat, his eyes widening a bit when he realized that Gemini had had the courtesy of adding some comfort charms. Gemini didn't like all the diplomacy and niceties, but needs must and chances were Black wasn't going to be spreading any stories of 'soft' dark wizards for a while yet.

"So tell me what you think of the situation so far." Gemini opened the conversation.

"Well, you've kidnapped Harry from his relatives, saved his life, taught him magic, pissed of Dumbledore and generally run amok. Not a bad track record for a dark wizard I suppose." Sirius said, leaning back. He was as nervous as hell, he was sure that if he wasn't holding onto the arm rest of his chair, his hands would be shaking. However his animal instincts were strong. He knew to show fear was far worse than the act of being afraid.

"Good. You seem to have an accurate grasp of the situation, although I think 'run amok' is an exaggeration." Gemini replied.

"You were setting dementors alight and raising hell, in nearly every way possible, when I first saw you." Sirius shot back without thinking. He paled a little as he heard what he had just told Gemini. Gemini laughed, a deep chuckle that was entirely too close to madness for Sirius's comfort.

"True, true, I'll concede that point. But on to what we need you for. You understand that James and Lily are dead?" Sirius nodded, opting not to say anything after his earlier outburst. "Good, and you know some of the prophecy true?" again a nod. "Marvellous, know now Black, if you fail in what I ask of you, if you don't put everything into what I ask, you will wish I had left you to the dementors." Gemini's voice had changed, it was deep and soft at the same time, promising the kind of punishment that only hell could offer. Was it just him, or had the room suddenly gotten darker? Sirius thought to himself. But he nodded again.

"Good, then I want you to raise Harry." Gemini said his voice was back to normal, and so was the light.

"What? That's it?" Sirius asked, again without thinking.

"You think it is easy to raise a quarter blood? Let alone that one?" Gemini asked back, "That'll last until he sets you're robes alight." he muttered under his breath. "Come on, let's go introduce you to your godson." Gemini said getting up.

"Nuttier than Dumbledore." Sirius breathed as he got up to follow Gemini.

"I heard that Black." Gemini said sharply.

"And as bad McGonagall with that tone." Sirius uttered even softer under his breath. Gemini casually flicked his hand over his shoulder. Sirius yelped as something very much like a pinching jinx hit his ear. Gemini chuckled in front of him. Sirius glared, Dark wizard or not, nobody pranked Sirius Black without some retaliation! Well that would maybe have to wait a bit. They had just entered the antechamber.

"Harry." Gemini called up, enhancing his voice minimally with a charm. The figure on the broom circling above them spiralled down. Harry drifted easily towards them before hopping of the broom and letting it float into his hand.

"Amazing Harry! Such control, bet your a great Quidditch player!" Sirius exclaimed as the boy walked the final steps towards them.

"Harry this is your godfather, Sirius Black." Gemini said by means of an introduction. "I trust you two will get to know each other?" He continued, before walking out of the antechamber.

"What's wrong with him?" Sirius asked, picking up on the breeze that had suddenly got a lot cooler.

"I think he's still annoyed that I'm bribing him." Harry said watching the doors close behind Gemini. Sirius stared at Harry for a moment, before letting out a bark of laughter.

"You know what Harry? I like you already." Sirius said.

"Do you like to fly?" Harry asked. Sirius was puzzled by the odd change of topic, but nodded anyway.

"Good, then I'll probably like you to." Harry said turning to look Sirius in the eye, and then gave a lop-sided grin caused Sirius to laugh again.

"You look a lot like James, when you do that you know?" Sirius said.

"You knew my parents?" Harry asked. Gemini and Clare had told him that his parents were dead, and that they were killed by a dark wizard called Voldemort, but his real name was Tom Riddle, and that he had disappeared after that night. They hadn't told Harry how they came to have him in their care, and Harry had never thought about it enough to ask. But one thing they didn't know about was what his parents were like.

"Yea, I could tell you all sorts of stories about them, if you'd like." Sirius replied. Harry held out a hand in front of him and flicked it sideways, a broom cupboard beside the door opened. Harry made a pulling motion, frowning intently, and a single broom shot forth. It was a very impressive display, until the broom smacked into Harry, that was. Sirius helped him up, and Harry offered him the summoned broom.

"Will you fly with me then?" He asked. Sirius nodded and took the offered broomstick. Together they took off. As Sirius started to tell Harry how he had met first James, on the Hogwarts Express.

Gemini scowled at the parchment he had just finished enchanting. He was almost finished Harry's archaic rune stick, and yet here he was wasting time on a blasted letter! Clare walked up behind him and curled her arms around his neck.

"What's wrong?" She whispered in his ear. Gemini leaned back a bit in his chair.

"I'm writing to Dumbledore. I never finished explaining the first time, and I incinerated the parchments so now I'm making a new pair." He grumbled.

"That's your own fault then."

"Don't remind me. And it was such a dramatic end to our conversation too." He gave a sigh, "Why is real life so much less than poetic?" Clare said nothing, remaining silent as Gemini whined about life again.

**A.N Finally I return! Don't know where from though... Anyway there's number 7. **

**A reviewer asked about the pairing, I haven't planned that far ahead... I've got until Harry's first year and sorting planned and the ending (I'm just working on a skeleton for the inbetween bits so far). It won't be Hermione or Ginny, why? Because I'm not the greatest fan of such common pairings, there are great stories with those pairing, but this won't be one of them. Secondly it won't be slash. Sorry, nothing agianst authors or readers who like that, but it ain't my cup of tea. **

**Okay, as you may have guessed from this chapter my beta has gone M.I.A so this is sans outside checking meaning there are probably more than a few mistakes.**

**After that sufficently vague note, bye.**


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